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(Monday, December 13, 1943, around 9:00 a.m. Central European Time; part of the War crimes of the Wehrmacht during World War II) — The German 117th Jäger Division today carried out the Kalavryta massacre, the near-extermination of the male population and the total destruction of the town of Kalavryta, in Axis-occupied Greece, in retaliation for the earlier killing of German troops.

In the early morning, the Germans rounded up all residents of the town and forced them into the school building, where they separated the older boys and men from the women and children. They moved the men to a field owned by Thanasis Kappis, a school teacher, just overlooking the town.

After looting the town and setting it ablaze, the Germans machine-gunned the men. 438 men, boys and seniors were killed. There were only 13 male survivors, saved because they were hidden under the bodies of the dead.

The next call of order was to lock rounded up women and children into a primary school. After doing so the Germans set the school on fire. Luckily, the women and children found a way to escape the school, which was already on fire.

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According to some accounts, an Austrian soldier left a door of the school unlocked, thereby allowing the women and children to escape.

The following day the German troops burned down the Agia Lavra monastery, a landmark of the Greek War of Independence.

During the reprisals of Operation Kalavryta 693 civilians were killed; their names are listed on memorials in Kalavrita and other villages. Twenty-eight communities – towns, villages, monasteries and settlements – were destroyed.

In Kalavryta itself about 1,000 houses were looted and burned, and more than 2,000 livestock seized by the Germans.